Cellulose digestion by freshwater microcrustacea1

Abstract

Representatives of three diverse families of Cladocera incorporated [ 14 C(U)]cellulose with efficiencies of 2.3–11.5%, corrected for gut retention on the basis of chloroform‐ and methanol‐soluble label in tissue homogenates. This finding supports recent speculation that some detrital carbon may be used by consumers or affiliated symbionts without exogenous microbial transformation.